# dead

Pronunciation: say "DED" /dɛd/

## Adjective

1. No longer living; having died and ceased all life functions.
   - Simple: No longer living, after life has ended.
   - _The soldiers buried their dead comrades before sunrise._
   - _Doctors pronounced him dead at the scene._
3. Not working, or without electrical power or charge, as of a battery, machine, phone, or circuit.
   - Simple: Not working, or with no power left, like a flat battery or a broken machine.
   - _The car wouldn't start because the battery was dead._
   - _She tossed the dead batteries into the recycling bin._
5. Without life, energy, or activity; dull, or unusually quiet and empty of people.
   - Simple: Dull and without energy, or very quiet with few people around, as in 'the town is dead at night'.
   - _The band sounded dead on stage, going through the motions with no spark._
   - _The novel's middle chapters are dead, with no tension or momentum._
6. Doomed or marked for death; effectively finished already, whether meant literally or as hyperbole.
   - Simple: Sure to die soon, or in very big trouble.
   - _Cornered with no way out, the fugitive knew he was dead._
   - _If you scratch Dad's car, you're dead._
7. No longer in use, needed, or existing; belonging to the past.
   - Simple: Not used or needed any more, or gone and part of the past.
   - _The old account is dead, so emails to it just bounce back._
   - _Half the links on that page are dead and lead nowhere._
9. Exact; precisely on the mark or on time.
   - Simple: Exact and precise, right on the mark.
   - _The race ended in a dead heat between the favorites._
   - _Drill the hole at the dead center of the panel._
10. Full and complete; applied especially to an absence of motion, sound, or activity.
   - Simple: Complete and total, with no motion or sound at all.
   - _We waited in dead silence for the verdict._
   - _The sea lay in a dead calm under the noon sun._
13. So tired that no energy is left, especially after hard work or a night with too little sleep. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Very, very tired, often after working hard or not sleeping enough.
   - _Don't call me tonight; I'm dead after three night shifts in a row._
   - _By the third day of hauling boxes, the whole crew was dead, too tired even to cook dinner._
14. Overwhelmed with laughter, or sometimes with shock or embarrassment, as in 'I'm dead'. *(slang)*
   - Simple: An informal way of saying you are laughing too hard, or are so shocked or embarrassed you can't cope.
   - _I'm absolutely dead, that was the funniest thing I've seen all week._
   - _My sister sent me a video of her cat sliding off the counter, and I'm dead._
15. So disliked or offensive as to be completely shunned, ignored, or cut off.
   - Simple: Treated as if not there, because of being hated or rejected.
   - _The informer was dead to everyone in the village._
   - _When she married against her parents' wishes, they told her she was dead to them and stopped answering her calls._
16. Showing or feeling no emotion; flat, impassive, and unresponsive.
   - Simple: Showing no feeling at all, so it seems flat and cold.
   - _He delivered the news in a dead, level tone._
   - _He read the apology in a dead voice, never once looking up from the paper._
17. Affected by numbness and tingling, as in pins and needles.
   - Simple: Feeling numb, with a tingling like pins and needles.
   - _His leg went dead during the long flight._
   - _I shook my hand to wake it up after it went dead._
18. Devoid of living things; barren and unable to support life.
   - Simple: Empty of life, with nothing living or growing there.
   - _The river ran through a dead landscape of ash and rock._
   - _Overfishing left large stretches of the sea dead._
19. Completely stationary or unmoving; fixed and immovable in place.
   - Simple: Not moving at all and completely still.
   - _The ship lay dead in the water with its engines shut off._
   - _At the edge of the glacier lies a wide band of dead ice that stopped flowing long ago._
20. Dull or flat to the senses; lacking brightness, sparkle, or vividness.
   - Simple: Dull and flat, with no brightness or sparkle.
   - _The colors looked dead under the harsh fluorescent lights._
   - _The champagne had gone completely dead by midnight._
21. No longer in active play; out of play under the rules of the game.
   - Simple: Out of play under the rules, so play with the ball stops until the game starts again.
   - _The referee ruled the ball dead at the thirty-yard line._
   - _Once the whistle blows, the ball is dead and the clock stops._
24. Said of a fire, a coal, a match or a cigarette: burned out, with no heat or light left in it.
   - Simple: No longer burning, so it gives no heat or light. Used about fires, coals, matches and cigarettes.
   - _She poked at the dead coals in the grate, hoping to find one last spark._
   - _A dead cigarette hung from the corner of his mouth as he read the paper._

## Noun

2. People who have died, considered collectively.
   - Simple: People who have died, thought of as a group.
   - _The living gathered to mourn the dead._
   - _Ancient rites were performed to guide the dead into the afterlife._
12. The point at which coldness, darkness, or stillness is most intense.
   - Simple: The middle of a period when cold, dark, or quiet is strongest.
   - _She woke in the dead of night to a strange sound._
   - _The expedition set out in the dead of winter._

## Adverb

4. Completely or extremely, used informally before an adjective, as in 'dead simple', 'dead tired', or 'dead asleep'. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Very or completely, as in 'dead easy' or 'dead tired'.
   - _The instructions were dead simple to follow._
   - _He stood dead still as the deer approached._
8. Exactly or precisely; used especially before words of position or direction. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Exactly, with no error at all.
   - _The compass pointed dead north._
   - _As the fog lifted, we saw the lighthouse dead ahead of us._
11. Suddenly and completely, all at once.
   - Simple: All at once and completely, with no warning.
   - _The clock stopped dead at midnight._
   - _Halfway across the parking lot, she stopped dead, suddenly remembering she had left the stove on._

## Verb

22. To kill someone. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To kill a person.
   - _Rival crews threatened to dead each other over the territory._
   - _He claimed someone had paid him to dead the witness._
23. To stop or prevent something by disabling it.
   - Simple: To stop or block something by taking away its power to work.

## Other meanings

- (adjective) Deliberately built so as not to transmit motion or power.
- (adjective) Built or treated so as not to reflect or transmit sound; soundless or echo-free.
- (adjective) Producing nothing, as land left unplanted or money that earns no return.
- (adjective) In golf, of a ball, resting so close to the hole that the next putt is sure to go in.
- (adjective) In baseball, put out by being touched with the ball or with a glove holding it.
- (adjective) Causing death, fatal.
- (adjective) Legally treated as no longer existing, having lost a citizen's civil rights and the right to own or inherit property.
- (adjective) No longer affected or controlled by something such as sin, guilt, or pleasure, and feeling no tie to it, usually with to.
- (adjective) Describing a syllable, in Thai, Burmese and certain other languages, that stops sharply, as with a final stop consonant or short vowel.
- (noun) Worthless rock left in a mine, often piled in large heaps underground, usually in the plural.
- (noun) Short for deadlift, a weightlifting exercise in which a loaded bar is raised from the floor to hip height.
- (verb) To take away the life, strength, or energy of someone or something.
- (verb) To stop or cancel something, such as a plan or project.

## Origin

From Middle English ded, from Old English dēad, going back to Proto-West Germanic *daud and Proto-Germanic *daudaz. It is related to Dutch dood, German tot, and Danish and Norwegian død.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/dead (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).